1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to farming equipment and more particularly to apparatus for handling baled crop material of jumbo size and mass.
It has become common practice to bale crop material, such as hay, into relatively large, compact bales which is a commercially lucrative and labor saving practice, particularly for small farms or large scale commercial hay operations.
These large bales have proven to be particularly satisfactory in the ability to provide a self-shedding protective covering from inclement weather along the outer portion of their perimeters. Such self-formed protective covering permits the bales to be stored in the field and moved to a place of feeding as necessary.
These bales of material are generally of relatively large mass, ranging from one thousand to two thousand pounds. On account of the bale size and mass, some mechanical power means must be provided in order to move the bales either from the place of discharge from the baling machine to a place of field storage in side-by-side or stacked relation or as some farmers prefer, to a place having a protective or partially protective cover from the weather and which excludes the bales from contact by field grazing livestock.
This invention provides such an apparatus.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The prior art reveals a number of patents which are capable of handling jumbo size bales. The devices of such prior patents are generally limited to apparatus lifting jumbo-size hay bales a distance approximately twice the transverse dimension of the bales, whereas some operators desire to stack the bales at higher elevations above the surface of the earth.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,364,700 is an example of prior patents in which a support bar connected at one end with a tractor three point hitch has its other end pivotally connected with a two-tine frame for engaging a hay bale with the frame being tilted about the axis of the support bar by a hydraulic ram to maintain the plane of the bale lifting tines at or near the horizontal during the lifting action of the support bar by the three point tractor hitch.
This invention is distinctive over this and other similar patents by providing pivoting lift frames with one end portion of one frame connected with the three point hitch of a heavy-duty tractor with the other lift frame having parallelogram linkage pivotally connected at one end with a bale frame having bale engaging tines projecting in a direction opposite the tractor which maintains the plane of the tines at least horizontal or inclined upward opposite the tractor with respect to the surface of the earth.